IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v58y2023ipcs1544612323008346.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The role of ESG ranking in retail and institutional investors' attention and trading behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Bazrafshan, Ebrahim

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of disclosure processing costs on the utilization of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information by retail and institutional investors. I posit that retail investors may face challenges in processing ESG textual due to associated integration costs. However, institutional investors can benefit from noisy information by leveraging their better information processing capabilities. Evidence shows that ESG textual reporting positively affects institutional investors' attention and trading activities, but has no discernible impact on retail investors. However, when rating agency converts ESG information into easy-to-understand ranking format, it results in increased (decreased) trading activities among retail (institutional) investors.

Suggested Citation

  • Bazrafshan, Ebrahim, 2023. "The role of ESG ranking in retail and institutional investors' attention and trading behavior," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PC).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:58:y:2023:i:pc:s1544612323008346
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2023.104462
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612323008346
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2023.104462?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Samuel M. Hartzmark & Abigail B. Sussman, 2019. "Do Investors Value Sustainability? A Natural Experiment Examining Ranking and Fund Flows," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 74(6), pages 2789-2837, December.
    2. Arno Riedl & Paul Smeets, 2017. "Why Do Investors Hold Socially Responsible Mutual Funds?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(6), pages 2505-2550, December.
    3. Chen, Yong & Kelly, Bryan & Wu, Wei, 2020. "Sophisticated investors and market efficiency: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(2), pages 316-341.
    4. Baier, P. & Berninger, M. & Kiesel, F., 2020. "Environmental, social and governance reporting in annual reports: A textual analysis," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 120592, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    5. Hans B. Christensen & Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz, 2021. "Mandatory CSR and sustainability reporting: economic analysis and literature review," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 1176-1248, September.
    6. Timothy Kiessling & Lars Isaksson & Burze Yasar, 2016. "Market Orientation and CSR: Performance Implications," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 137(2), pages 269-284, August.
    7. Andy Puckett & Xuemin (Sterling) Yan, 2011. "The Interim Trading Skills of Institutional Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(2), pages 601-633, April.
    8. W. Brooke Elliott & Stephanie M. Grant & Kristina M. Rennekamp, 2017. "How Disclosure Features of Corporate Social Responsibility Reports Interact with Investor Numeracy to Influence Investor Judgments," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(3), pages 1596-1621, September.
    9. Brad M. Barber & Xing Huang & Terrance Odean & Christopher Schwarz, 2022. "Attention‐Induced Trading and Returns: Evidence from Robinhood Users," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(6), pages 3141-3190, December.
    10. Rob Bauer & Tobias Ruof & Paul Smeets & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, 2021. "Get Real! Individuals Prefer More Sustainable Investments [Explaining the discrepancy between intentions and actions: The case of hypothetical gap in contingent valuation]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(8), pages 3976-4043.
    11. Itay Goldstein & Liyan Yang, 2015. "Information Diversity and Complementarities in Trading and Information Acquisition," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(4), pages 1723-1765, August.
    12. Elizabeth Blankespoor, 2019. "The Impact of Information Processing Costs on Firm Disclosure Choice: Evidence from the XBRL Mandate," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 919-967, September.
    13. Blankespoor, Elizabeth & deHaan, Ed & Marinovic, Iván, 2020. "Disclosure processing costs, investors’ information choice, and equity market outcomes: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2).
    14. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1997. "Industry costs of equity," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 153-193, February.
    15. Ekkehart Boehmer & Charles M. Jones & Xiaoyan Zhang & Xinran Zhang, 2021. "Tracking Retail Investor Activity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(5), pages 2249-2305, October.
    16. Eaton, Gregory W. & Green, T. Clifton & Roseman, Brian S. & Wu, Yanbin, 2022. "Retail trader sophistication and stock market quality: Evidence from brokerage outages," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 502-528.
    17. Ozik, Gideon & Sadka, Ronnie & Shen, Siyi, 2021. "Flattening the Illiquidity Curve: Retail Trading During the COVID-19 Lockdown," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(7), pages 2356-2388, November.
    18. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    19. Anders Anderson & David T Robinson, 2022. "Financial Literacy in the Age of Green Investment [Evaluating behaviorally motivated policy: experimental evidence from the lightbulb market]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(6), pages 1551-1584.
    20. D’Hondt, Catherine & Merli, Maxime & Roger, Tristan, 2022. "What drives retail portfolio exposure to ESG factors?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).
    21. Borja Diez-Cañamero & Tania Bishara & Jose Ramon Otegi-Olaso & Rikardo Minguez & José María Fernández, 2020. "Measurement of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Review of Corporate Sustainability Indexes, Rankings and Ratings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-36, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Qian, Simeng, 2024. "The effect of ESG on enterprise value under the dual carbon goals: From the perspectives of financing constraints and green innovation," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 318-331.
    2. Da Gao & Xiaotian Zhou & Jing Wan, 2024. "Unlocking sustainability potential: The impact of green finance reform on corporate ESG performance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 4211-4226, September.
    3. Yin, Zhichao & Li, Xinqi & Si, Dengkui & Li, Xiaolin, 2023. "China stock market liberalization and company ESG performance: The mediating effect of investor attention," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1396-1414.
    4. Liu, Changyu & Gong, Wanrong & Dong, Guanglong & Ji, Qiang, 2024. "Regulation of environmental, social and governance disclosure greenwashing behaviors considering the risk preference of enterprises," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    5. Liang, Zhidong & Yang, Xiao, 2024. "The impact of green finance on the peer effect of corporate ESG information disclosure," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luz, Valentin & Schauer, Victor & Viehweger, Martin, 2024. "Beyond preferences: Beliefs in sustainable investing," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 584-607.
    2. Löfgren, Åsa & Nordblom, Katarina, 2024. "Reconciling sustainability preferences and behavior — The case of mutual fund investments," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    3. Montagnoli, Alberto & Taylor, Karl, 2024. "Who Cares about Investing Responsibly? Attitudes and Financial Decisions," IZA Discussion Papers 16952, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Clancey-Shang, Danjue, 2023. "COVID lockdown, Robinhood traders, and liquidity in stock and option markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    5. Heeb, Florian & Kölbel, Julian & Ramelli, Stefano & Vasileva, Anna, 2024. "Green investing and political behavior," SAFE Working Paper Series 438, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    6. Famulok, Jakob & Kormanyos, Emily & Worring, Daniel, 2024. "Do investors use sustainable assets as carbon offsets?," SAFE Working Paper Series 431, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    7. Martineau, Charles & Zoican, Marius, 2023. "Retail trading and analyst coverage," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    8. Giglio, Stefano & Maggiori, Matteo & Ströbel, Johannes & Tan, Zhenhao & Utkus, Stephen & Xu, Xiao, 2023. "Four Facts about ESG Beliefs and Investor Portfolios," CEPR Discussion Papers 18052, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Catherine D’hondt & Maxime Merli & Tristan Roger, 2021. "What drives retail portfolio exposure to ESG factors?," Post-Print hal-03373287, HAL.
    10. Barber, Brad M. & Morse, Adair & Yasuda, Ayako, 2021. "Impact investing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 162-185.
    11. Cohen, Shira & Kadach, Igor & Ormazabal, Gaizka & Reichelstein, Stefan, 2022. "Executive compensation tied to ESG performance: International evidence," ZEW Discussion Papers 22-051, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    12. Shira Cohen & Igor Kadach & Gaizka Ormazabal & Stefan Reichelstein, 2023. "Executive Compensation Tied to ESG Performance: International Evidence," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(3), pages 805-853, June.
    13. Darendeli, Alper & Fiechter, Peter & Hitz, Jörg-Markus & Lehmann, Nico, 2022. "The role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) information in supply-chain contracting: Evidence from the expansion of CSR rating coverage," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2).
    14. Bingxu Fang & Ole-Kristian Hope & Zhongwei Huang & Rucsandra Moldovan, 2020. "The effects of MiFID II on sell-side analysts, buy-side analysts, and firms," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 855-902, September.
    15. Christiansen, Charlotte & Jansson, Thomas & Kallestrup-Lamb, Malene & Noren, Vicke, 2023. "Households' investments in socially responsible mutual funds," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 46-67.
    16. Ferriani, Fabrizio, 2023. "Issuing bonds during the Covid-19 pandemic: Was there an ESG premium?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    17. Seifert, Marcel & Spitzer, Florian & Haeckl, Simone & Gaudeul, Alexia & Kirchler, Erich & Palan, Stefan & Gangl, Katharina, 2024. "Can information provision and preference elicitation promote ESG investments? Evidence from a large, incentivized online experiment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    18. Blankespoor, Elizabeth, 2022. "Understanding investor interaction with firm information: A discussion of Lee and Zhong (2022)," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2).
    19. Fernandez-Perez, Adrian & Garel, Alexandre & Indriawan, Ivan, 2022. "In the mood for sustainable funds?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    20. Pyun, Chaehyun, 2024. "Synchronous social media and the stock market," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ESG ranking; Rating agencies; Retail investors; Institutional investors; Information processing costs; Corporate social responsibility; Trading volume; Attention;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:58:y:2023:i:pc:s1544612323008346. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.